NSW is Australia’s best performing state while Western Australia has slipped to last place
NEW South Wales may has been named Australia’s best-performing state, but it’s not all good news. The crown could soon pass to its biggest rival.
IT’S official. NSW is Australia’s best performing state but it might not hold the crown for long with a neighbouring state snapping at its heels.
While Western Australia, struggling with an end to the mining boom, has slipped below Tasmania to become Australia’s worst performing state.
The State of the States report, compiled by finance firm CommSec, has put the First State in first place in terms of economic performance for the ninth consecutive month.
NSW has retained its top rankings on business investment, retail trade, and construction of new homes.
NSW Treasurer Gladys Berejiklian welcomed the results of the report saying the state was concentrating on bolstering its budget and building new infrastructure.
Last week, the NSW Government announced it had sold a majority share in the lease of the Ausgrid electricity network for $16 billion with much of the proceeds to be spent on new roads and rail links.
“Our economy is the strongest in the nation, our budget is firmly in the black and NSW is truly the number one place to live and work,” Ms Berejiklian said on Monday.
But the report sounded a note of caution on NSW’s future prospects saying the state was now in second place for unemployment, construction work, population growth and housing finance and third for economic growth.
With a surging growth rate, up 5.4 per cent on a year ago, CommSec predicts second-placed Victoria could overtake its archrival within the next 12 months.
Victoria was also the only state to record an increase in fulltime jobs in the past year, with unemployment at 5.7 per cent despite having the country’s fastest-growing population.
Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas said the figures highlighted the government’s investments “in our state, our businesses and our people”.
The ACT came in at third with a strong housing sector and economic growth while the Northern Territory was fourth helped by a construction boom and low unemployment.
South Australia and Queensland were in the middle of the table at fifth and sixth place respectively.
Tasmania managed to heave itself off the bottom of the table, to seventh best performing state, due to a solid level of construction work fuelled by population growth.
The wooden spoon has instead gone to Western Australia which has been harmed by the tail off in the mining boom.
The state has the country’s weakest economic growth and has seen business investment plummet and unemployment rise.
But the CommSec report offers the West a glimmer of light saying income levels should lift in the state in line with record mining export volumes and the recent improvement in resource prices.